


The Indigo Quarry

by TroyBolton



Series: King of Far, Far Range [2]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And aye Denton got to be part of the fic for like three seconds, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, I mean its kinda a sick fic, I still have no idea when Slime Rancher takes place, Implied Insomnia, Sick Character, Sickfic, Slime Rancher AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-09 05:44:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14710226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TroyBolton/pseuds/TroyBolton
Summary: The constant rocking of the ship made his head spin and he could never get a single ounce of sleep no matter how hard he tried. They hardly managed to make any newbucks with this job and god did Davey loathe the situation. He wanted to explore the world by foot, to find new slime to take care of and meet other ranchers and be free! He didn’t give up on his dream, he refused to. He’d never give up on something like that if it meant it would be a better life for his little brother. He was going to get them off this ship and he swore by that.





	1. He just wants a ranch

Davey and Les were happy to train and prepare to move out to Far, Far Range, it's something they spent years getting ready and saving up for. Sarah told them she would have come if it weren’t for the fact that she still had training to finish up herself. She would miss her brothers dearly until she managed to get to the place after her own training. Perhaps they would meet again eventually. Davey promised to send her star mail as often as possible.   
  
Davey was hoping he and Les would end up with a ranch to call their own when they finally made it to the planet, but Pulitzer had other plans for them. They ended up working on a ship that sailed the slime sea for some time. Davey would of said he enjoyed it if it weren’t for the fact that he constantly found himself sea sick and really only wanted to be a rancher. He planned a calm safe life with Les, and this wasn’t calm _  or _  safe.    
  
The constant rocking of the ship made his head spin and he could never get a single ounce of sleep no matter how hard he tried. They hardly managed to make any newbucks with this job and god did Davey loathe the situation. He wanted to explore the world by foot, to find new slime to take care of and meet other ranchers and be free! He didn’t give up on his dream, he refused to. He’d never give up on something like that if it meant it would be a better life for his little brother. He was going to get them off this ship and he swore by that.   
  
Speaking _ of his brother -  _   
  
“Davey! Davey! Captain Snyder says we’re going to stop off on a new spot in a little bit!” Les exclaimed, running up to his older brother with excitement, “Says that if we’re lucky we can find more useful crewmembers too, but I chose to ignore that part. He told me that we’re going to be spending some time drilling for supplies and collecting slime. The usual boring stuff.”   
  
Davey snorted, “Guess we should get ready then yeah?” he hummed, “But uh...between you and me Les? Pack all your stuff you got here in your bag, okay?” Les was obviously confused by the new request, but nodded and headed over to their room to get ready. Davey himself went and grabbed something to eat for the two of them and spent the rest of his time preparing to land and preparing for their new life once they did.   
**  
**

* * *

  
Davey and Les had spent a little over a month in the Indigo Quarry and already they had people after their heads. Davey couldn’t blame Les, really he tried his hardest not to, but the kid should have known better than to steal from a ranch. Especially if it was something like a strange diamond. Davey himself tried to return the item to its rightful owners, but the two boys only snapped at him and chased him away, so he dropped it and ran back into the caves in which he and Les had currently been living in. It wasn’t really the most ideal situation in the world.   
  
In fact it wasn’t ideal at all. The Indigo Quarry was a fairly dangerous place with its cliff sides and and jagged rocks, not to mention it was inhabited by some pretty dangerous slime. They always avoided the rad-slime areas best they could because anyone who was smart enough knew that those things could cause some serious sickness if you weren't careful. It was however, a tad hard to avoid something like the crystal slime. The little things lived basically everywhere and once you got a largo in the same place as you, something twice the size of the average slime, well then it's incredibly hard to avoid them because of their love of jumping directly at you. Davey and Les eventually settled for a nice cave a bit high up where the dangerous slime couldn’t quite reach. The only slime that really seemed to even be able to get up into the area was the phosphor slime, which were Davey’s favorite. They reminded him of the lightning bugs back on earth. How they would happily light up the night sky without a care in the world.    
  
Davey sometimes wished he could live like a lightning bug, not having to worry about anything and quietly lighting the night while the moon shone brightest in the sky. He could never complain about the view in Far, Far Range. The moon was always so large and happy looking, the stars twinkling here and there beside it with other small, further away planets. Clouds quietly made their way through the sky, drifting in the cool air. It was something out of a fairy tale as Les had described it to his brother.   
  
Unfortunate for Davey, like on the ship, he hardly got any sleep. Fear always crept over him in the dark cave, worries of losing his brother if he didn’t stay up and keep an eye out incase of any accidents or slime appearing. He always pushed the subject off whenever Les brought it up.   
  
“You look tired.”   
“I’m fine.”   
“Says you and the fifty bags under your eyes.”   
“Its okay Les.”   
  
And the conversation ended there, changing to something a bit more lighthearted while they went out trying to gather up food. Davey found that hen-hens were a good source of food but unfortunately, he didn’t quite have the heart to kill them. Anytime they caught one Davey  begged Les to let the “poor helpless bird” go. Les rolled his eyes and did as requested and the two of them would end up eating oca oca and odd onions for the breakfast, lunch and dinner.   
  
It wasn't a healthy meal if you weren’t getting what you needed in your body.   
They both always joked about how they could live off it with no problem.   
The taste was bitter, but they couldn’t afford to complain now.   
  


* * *

  
Davey couldn’t take it anymore.  _ “Planet of opportunity my ass.”  _ he grumbled to himself as he dragged his feet through Cinder Grove, one of many dangerous places in Indigo Quarry. Les told him he needed to get out of the cave and explore more. Stop being stuck in a stuffy area all day and see what he could find while he himself went to find fruits. Davey was open to exploring anything at this rate if it meant he didn’t need to be stuck in the dark all day. Course Cinder Grove wasn’t any better than the main area of Indigo Quarry, but it was at least a change of scenery right? The place didn’t have its name for nothing, it was almost impossibly hot and one of the places boom slime tended to live, along with rock, crystal and pink slime. The least harmful of the bunch was pink slime unless they decided to become a largo with one of the others.   
  
This was a bad idea now that Davey really thought about it, but there's no turning back now and he can’t just come back to the cave empty handed. So he pushed through and looked further into the scorching area. This bad idea became a huge mistake really fast when he ended up with a burned up arm on his way back to the cave after giving up trying to find anything useful. Burned up as in _‘wow this is going to leave a terrible scar once its fully healed and maybe even some nerve damage.’_ He needed a place to clean it fast and the Indigo Quarry wasn’t exactly the best place to find _good_ water unless he wanted to shove his arm into the salty slime sea.   
  
He trekked on for what seemed hours, arm numb from the burns unless he happened to press it, until Davey finally caught sight of some light peaking through a unlocked door and...moss? Grass? There was no greenery in the Indigo Quarry from what he recalled, at least not a lot of it like at this entrance. He didn’t know what the place was but at this rate his arm was starting to gain feeling again and he was willing to risk going in, in order to find a fresh source of water to place the arm in.   
  
The place itself was amazing. Cool breeze and sunny sky, slime of many different kinds and lush plants everywhere. Davey almost wished he and Les had known about it sooner as he walked deeper into its depths. It took him a bit of time (and a bit of climbing that caused quite a bit more pain in his arm) until he found some fresh water littered with puddle and pink slime. Davey could not be more excited about placing his burned arm in the water and making it sting more than how it was previously. He held back tears and hissed as he attempted to wash the burns off best he could. Considering he didn’t think to bring his pack with him, or any supplies that would help, Davey removed a sleeve off his shirt and used it as the material to keep the burns from getting infected. “Good as new.” he inspected the makeshift bandage one more time before making his way down the little ledge and back to the entrance.   
  
Davey wasn’t expecting to walk directly into another person when making his way through said entrance, and before the other person could get up, Davey bolted for it, back into the Indigo Quarry because this person was very clearly nowhere near looking like or being as small as Les was. Because he was currently delusional with pain, he didn’t even think that maybe this person could possibly help he and his brother out of the dark and dreary place and only acted upon instinct.   
  
And that's how Davey Jacobs got lost.


	2. Oh the Radiation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new person smiled. His features were soft now that Davey was getting a sort of good look at him. 'Sort of' because dark spots started to obscure his vision and before he really knew what was going on Davey was out like a light, the voice of the nameless boy calling to him.

He ran a fair distance before the delusion really kicked in and Davey started to feel exhausted. Be it because of the searing pain in his arm or the fact that he didn't sleep at all these past months, he needed to take a break and now. Davey slowed down and collapsed upon the ashen ground of the Cinder Grove, gasping for air and processing everything that happened before hand. His lungs burned as he heaved, heart pounding against his ribs, he didn’t think he could even muster the strength to lift himself even if he wanted to so he stayed put. The adrenaline of it all slowly starting to die down, Davey didn’t even hear the faint sound of a jet pack coming his direction until it sounded too loud. The owner of said pack landed next to Davey with a light thud.  
  
“Excuse me?” Davey flinched, it was too long since he’d last seen anyone other than Les and while the voice didn’t sound threatening he was still pretty scared. “Hey you okay? Because you kinda slammed into me over there and then ran away like a frightened and not so majestic deer.”   
  
Davey huffed in slight pain, “I-I’m fine. I uh...I’m really sorry for running into you back there.” he slowly attempted to sit himself up and pressed his back against the heated cave wall, “It's just that you surprised me is all. I’ve never seen anyone other than my brother around this area and wasn’t expecting to run into a new face.”   
  
The new person smiled. His features were soft now that Davey was getting a sort of good look at him. _'Sort of'_ because dark spots started to obscure his vision and before he really knew what was going on Davey was out like a light, the voice of the nameless boy calling to him.   
  
**-*-*-*-*-*-*-**   
  
_Davey spent a good long year on this ship and he hated every bit of it. He didn’t mind the slime sea but the rocking of the boat always made him sick to his stomach. Captain Snyder always chewed him out for being sick so often, one day he threatened to remove him from the ship._ _“You don’t like my boat then perhaps you’ll like it better if you were one with the sea itself!” he sneered to the sickly child. “I need good strong workers and you have thus far proven that you can not handle the work upon this ship. You’re lucky mister Jacobs, if I didn’t need all hands on deck I would have tossed you and your brother from this boat months ago!”_   
  
_These arguments happened often, every other week at least, Davey just wasn’t phased by it anymore. 'You did this wrong Jacobs' this and 'You are to weak for this job' that, it was nothing new to Davey. This time though, this time he just felt far too sick to comprehend anything being brutally yelled at him by the older man. He wasn’t quite sure why he felt so bad this time around, he’d only been working with the slime this month as they traveled about. Before Davey could really think much more he was shoved from the captain’s quarters and left alone in the hallway As he started to walk back to he and Les’ room things started to feel overheated and stuffy. After what could have been an hour of slow walking, Davey felt as if he couldn’t move at all and ended up pressing himself against the right wall of the hallway. The heat he felt before turned to the feeling of burning yet he somehow managed to feel too cold all at the same time. It was all too much, to overwhelming, and then -_   
  
_“Whoa, David are you okay man?” A voice from the opposite end of the hallway called to him. Smalls. “You look like you were hit with a case of the flu that slowly turned to the plague that somehow started to get worse than that. What were you doing, dancing with the rad slime?” she joked._   
  
_That's when it hit Davey. The rad slime, he’d been working in the slime area and apparently wasn’t careful enough. It was radiation poisoning slowing eating him alive. He looked to Smalls with pleading eyes, hoping she would get the message that he really needed help, and thankfully she did._   
  
_“Shit dude this looks serious. You stay here and I’ll be right back with Specs and Finch alright? Don’t do anything stupid.” with that she ran off. Davey snorted at her telling him to stay put. Not exactly like he had the strength to get up and move anywhere even if he wanted to. While he waited, Davey ended up losing what he assumed was his lunch next to him. It wasn’t fun but it made his stomach stop hurting for a few moments._   
  
_Sure enough Smalls came back to him with Specs and Finch close behind, the two other boys helped pick Davey up and quickly carried him to the sick bay of the ship where a doctor silently looked him over. Eventually the doctor determined what was wrong and injected him with some sorta medicine he couldn’t quite name. Normally Davey was picky about needles but due to the situation at hand he couldn’t quite complain about it or feel any fear for that matter. Specs, Finch and Smalls took turns keeping an eye on him over the next few hours for the doctor, making sure his condition didn’t worsen and hoping that his fever would eventually break. It did, thankfully, and Davey was able to rest for awhile without feeling like he was in the center of a volcano and a blizzard all at once._   
  
_He was in and out the rest of the day when resting, occasionally drinking water and eating little food. The next time he was really awake there was a fight going on in front of the room. The door was shut but the two adults were so loud it made Davey’s head pound. The yelling was almost impossible to ignore._   
  
_“I want that boy off this ship at next landing Denton!” Snyder snapped harshly at his second in command, “He is constantly sick and holding back our work back! I’m surprised he hasn’t died out here yet! To think he wanted a ranch-”_   
  
_“Now captain there is no reason to be so harsh on him. If you didn’t constantly overwork these kids then maybe he wouldn’t be in this condition.” Denton shot back, anger clear in his voice. The others loved Denton, he was always so calm and understanding compared to the captain and in some cases the others wished he was captain over Snyder himself. Course that would never happen unless something happened to Snyder. “Besides, David is one of our best here! Without him the slime would be out of control! So he got a little radiation poisoning, he’ll be right as rain in no time. Hes a strong, smart kid who just got a bit of bad luck during slime feeding time is all.”_   
  
_“Well if he isn’t ‘right as rain’ by tomorrow morning, he’s being removed at our next stop. He and his little brother!” and thus Snyder left, loud stomping slowly growing more silent the further he got. Davey was out again after that for a few more hours. He had to make sure he didn’t let something like this happen again, he would be extra cautious around the rad slime next time. They couldn’t be kicked off the ship, he needed to make sure Les was safe and okay and right now safe and okay was what the ship had._   
  
**-*-*-*-*-*-*-**   
  
  
When Davey awoke he was expecting the hard ground of the cave. His head was sore but his arm wasn't burning as much as it had been previously. When he went to sit up he slowly realized this ‘ground’ was too soft to be a cave floor. He was in a bed. It was a soft, homely, welcoming bed he didn’t want to get up from.     
Then everything began to click.   
Davey shot up immediately, only causing himself to feel more nauseous in the process. He fell back into the bed and hissed in pain.   
  
“You’re awake!” a voice exclaimed excitedly. “You really scared me there for a second, thought you were dyin’ on me or something like that. And to think we were just gettin' to be friends.” a chuckle, “No need to worry by the way, I found your brother. He came looking for you a little while after you totally blacked out. Says your names David? You can call me Crutchie.”   
  
“‘S nice to meet you Crutchie.” Davey grumbled out, “Head hurts.”   
  
“Well I would assume so, from what it looked like you had some high radiation levels. The fact that you even survived it was kinda crazy! You were lucky you ran into me when you did too because I had just the medicine to help. I always keep some on hand in case of an incident where the radiation levels get too bad ” Crutchie limped over to the bed with a cup of water in hand, Davey gladly took the cup and chugged every last drop of water. “Your brother said this had happened to you before, its remarkable you survived something like that twice. You were out for a day by the way, thought I would tell you so you don’t freak out.”   
  
“A day?” Davey frowned a little in thought. This poor kid had to deal with his dumb ass getting sick again for a day, what a great first impression. He attempted to sit up once more, slower this time. “I-I’m so sorry I didn’t...I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble. I and my brother will be out of your hair right away and-” Crutchie cut him off, placing a hand on Davey’s chest and slowly pushing him back into the bed.   
  
“Oooh no mister Jacobs, you are staying right in this bed until you’re better. I’m not fully sure if the radiation is gone or not and I’m sure your brother would be mighty upset if you went back out there in your condition. Not to mention you two were living in a cave, there's no way you could get better in some place like that. And-” he gestured to Davey’s burned arm, “I took the liberty of cleaning up your arm properly and bandaging it up. Boom slime are nasty little brats and a burn like that wouldn’t have healed with what you did to it. I got some nice healing ointment on it that I made myself using some honey and other herbs I’ve found around the place. It works really well and the burn should be healed in just a couple weeks if you’re lucky.” Crutchie grinned, “It's going to scar though.”   
  
Davey was at a loss for words. He only ever experienced this kind of kindness from a few of the other boys back on the ship and Denton on occasion, but it had really been quite a long time since then. He nervously cleared his throat and nodded, “I-I guess if uh...if its not any trouble to you then…”   
  
“You can stay, you and your little brother Les are both very welcome onto my ranch. What's mine is yours now. Besides you two look like total shit and we need to get something other than oca oca and odd onion in those bodies of yours.” Crutchie laughed lightly. Les must have showed him how they'd been living for so long in the Indigo Quarry. “Well I best be off, I gotta go clean up around the ranch and make my daily exchanges to the plort market, but I’ll come back and check on you later with Les alright?” the rancher got up and left the room, looking back at Davey once more before closing the door completely. He left Davey to his thoughts.   
  
Davey wasn’t fully settled on staying at this ranch with his new found friend, but he was thankful Crutchie had helped him and happily went back to resting as much as he could without being yelled at like he had been in the past. For once he felt like he could breathe without the constant fear of something hurting him or Les. As he closed his eyes, sleep was incredibly welcoming to him after all these months of having none of it. It was nice, calming even.   
  
Davey felt safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third chapter added because I have a smaller idea to go with this, but you can consider this one done pretty much.  
> David Jacobs is a absolute foolish kid but you can't blame him because life sailing the slime sea was shit and rad slime really fucked up his immune system.
> 
> I will go back and fix up any issues I may have missed in the process of looking the fic over, and hope you all enjoy.


	3. Brooklyn and Manhattan newsies can and do get along

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It reminds me of why I wanted to come to Far, Far Range.” Davey waved a hand out to the sun along the ocean's edge, “Things like this. Back in the city, in New York? There was hardly any space to breathe or move or do what you wanted. But here! Here you can run for ages and always find something new around every corner. There's always a brand new area to explore, kind people to meet that you actually want to talk to, and it's all just….” he sighed, fiddling with the wrap around his arm.
> 
> “It feels like home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually didn't read through this one four or five times like I do the others, so I apologize in advance for any major mistakes.

A few days passed, Davey and Crutchie had started to get along quite well. It wasn’t long before Davey discovered Crutchie’s slime science area and since then he never really left. Crutchie figured it was best since it was one of the safer areas of the ranch and he did need to keep an eye out on the older boy in case the rad poisoning decided to suddenly come back.   
  
Davey today decided he would sit on the roof of his little home area and look out onto the sea as the sun started to set. It was gorgeous, pinks and orange spreading across the starry sky as the wind gently blew against him. As much as he missed earth, you could never get a view such as this anywhere in the electronic cities back on the home planet. Everything here felt so natural and warm and welcoming. He enjoyed it for once.   
  
“Hey!” Crutchie called, making his way up to where Davey sat, “Thought you’d be working back in the science area. See you’re enjoying yourself.” He hummed, setting his crutch down and sitting beside Davey to soak up the last rays of the sun.   
  
“It reminds me of why I wanted to come to Far, Far Range.” Davey waved a hand out to the sun along the ocean's edge, “Things like this. Back in the city, in New York? There was hardly any space to breathe or move or do what you wanted. But here! Here you can run for ages and always find something new around every corner. There's always a brand new area to explore, kind people to meet that you actually want to talk to, and it's all just….” he sighed, fiddling with the wrap around his arm.   
  
“It feels like home.” Crutchie finished for him, a fond smile upon his face. “I know what ya mean. Thats...its why I came out here actually. Being a newsie? Sure it was fun, but the more the city was built up and screens started to be placed everywhere, space tech, well bein’ a newsie got harder on some of us because no one bothered buying newspaper anymore. I was lucky that I even inherited this place really. miss Medda was really sweet bout’ it. Said she couldn’t take care of it anymore since she had another ranch someplace else and that she wanted me to take a chance at it.” He lightly laughed, looking to Davey with a sort of mischievous glint in his eyes, “I can’t say I would ever go back and say no to her. Because I love this place.”   
  
“I thought you got the place from a lost member of the family?”   
  
“Yeah well I lie so people don’t go to Medda askin’ for her ranch because the boy who owns it now has a banged up leg and supposedly can’t do anything.” Davey and Crutchie both sat in silence, it wasn’t long till they were laughing together, “Really though, shes a sweet lady, we should visit her other ranch sometime. She’d really like you.”   
  
Their laughs slowly quieted down as they both watched the moon slowly begin to rise. It was a comforting silence for both of them. To Davey, it was nice that he didn’t actually have to talk for awhile, Crutchie pressed him lightly for answers about his past often and Davey never really answered anything, instead always dancing around the subject of the ship. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust Crutchie, he only feared that if he opened up he would be yelled at for his feelings to it all.   
  
To Crutchie, it was nice that he actually had someone there. Sure there was a fair share of nights where Race and Spot would come over or he’d head over to their ranch, but something about Davey made him feel so relaxed and happy compared to the other two who always made him feel somewhat tense and childish. He wished they had more time to relax together like this and really get to know one another more.   
  
Though While the silence  _ was _ nice, Crutchie had to get a question of his chest before he blew up from thinking about it too much.   
  
“So I know that you don’t like talking about your life sailing or whatever but, uhm, you mind tellin’ me how you got rad poisoning in the first place on a ship? I’ve just been thinking about it for awhile and how I’d never even heard of a ship sailing the slime sea to begin with. Was there like some kinda ranch on it or something?”   
  
“No. It's nothing like that.” Davey snorted. The memories of the ship and the days spent on it were all to clear to him. He would only wish during those times that it was only a ranch that floated at sea. “It was a ship that collected supplies for this big corporation or something. Course we needed newbucks still so we kept slime in this one part of the deck and made sure to feed them so we could exchange plorts to the plort market. I worked with the slime since they were all so calm around me. Apparently no one else could really get them to calm down and stop acting out until I came along.” he shrugged, “Got sick because I wasn’t paying attention like I should have been. After I slowly got better we found out I had a bad immune system thanks to the first bout of rad poisoning. Captain Snyder always yelled at me with things like  _ ‘You’re always too sick Jacobs’ _ and  _ ‘I’m kicking you off this ship’ _ . I figured I may as well have left after awhile since he clearly didn’t want Les or myself there.”   
  
Crutchie frowned, “Well that's not right! Did you go to anyone about it at all?”   
  
“What? No! God no, not like anyone would listen.” Davey rolled his eyes. It was true, the only people who would listen were those who worked with the 7Zee rewards club, and they weren’t a huge corporation or anything so it wasn’t like it would do much. “Besides, its not like I could contact people after that. I don’t know if you remember but you found my brother in a cave after I basically passed out and nearly died.” he laughed half heartedly, Crutchie could easily see the unease on Davey’s face, but he didn’t really want to stop now. He wanted a few more answers. Davey couldn’t exactly blame Crutchie for being so curious about such things, this was all so new to him after all.   
  
“Okay but...you didn’t even try to find any ranchers or anything? Davey you had to be smarter than th-”   
  
“I did look for other ranchers! I wanted my brother safe a-and healthy and god I spent days looking and didn’t find anyone!” Davey snapped. The older boy didn’t intend on sounding so harsh and it very obviously took Crutchie by surprise. The bite in his voice causing Crutchie to tense up ever so slightly. “We didn’t find anyone really. There was these two people, they were brothers I guess, and because Les wasn’t thinking they ended up chasing us off after I tried to return something he took. They were assholes anyway so it's not like I would have wanted to live with them even if they offered.”  he drew in a shaky breath, holding his arms and lightly picking at his sleeves. So much had been bottled up these past few days it seemed as if once Davey had started spilling everything it just didn’t want to stop. Crutchie let him continue on.   
  
“Just... _ shit  _ Crutch, it was scary out there! I was terrified that I would end up losing my brother out there in those caves. I love the Indigo Quarry for how gorgeous it is in the daylight, with its blue green crystal formations and purple everything, but so many sleepless nights and stressful days were spent there that the place brings nothing but bad memory now. When I woke up at your place, tried to get up and leave as soon as I could? I was scared because I constantly got yelled at for  _ being  _ sick. I thought you were going to be mad and tell me to leave as soon as I could walk again because that's just how it was on that godforsaken ship.”   
  
Davey was shaken up now and Crutchie wasn’t quite sure if a hug was the right idea. He opened his arms to suggest it, Davey happily accepting the warm embrace of his friend. Soft sobs raked through his body as he cried into Crutchie’s shoulder, holding him tighter in fear he may leave him alone. Crutchie understood fully and didn’t let go of Davey till Davey himself started to move away. He softly pat Davey’s back, trying to reassure his friend that everything was going to be okay now. The other giving him a very, very slight smile while wiping his face on his sleeves.   
  
“I’m sorry I don’t...I’m not quite sure why that happened. I just couldn’t stop talking once I opened up and I guess it all started to flow out.” Davey took a deep breath, sighing. He looked back into the horizon of the slime sea, avoiding any eye contact with Crutchie. “Thanks. For letting me open up I mean...it helped me a little bit I guess. You’re literally one of the best people I’ve met Crutchie and I wish I’d met you sooner.”   
  
“Charlie. My real name is Charlie. I figured you just basically told me your entire dark backstory so I may as well give you something back in return. I mean, it's not a lot, but at least it's something? I don’t have much of a backstory either than what I told you of Medda.”   
  
“Uhm, _excuse me,_ mister Crutchie Morris, but I beg to differ. You said you were a newsie before this right? So was I.” He leaned back, swinging his legs slightly off the roof of the small house as he thought of what else to say, “I and Les spent a lot of time down in Brooklyn selling what papers we could. We didn’t much get along with the other newsies, or I didn’t, but it was whatever because before we knew it we were here.” Davey looked to Crutchie, a soft smile upon his face. At least he was feeling a bit better than before from what Crutchie could tell. “It was a pretty tough life, being a newsie was no funny business. It was like being thrown into a battlefield, fighting to get what you could for your next meal. The fact that you survived that is pretty amazing in itself.” he patted Crutchie on the back, finally deciding to lay down on the roof and just watch the stars above them.    
  
“I mean, I never looked at it that way actually.” Crutchie laughed awkwardly, following Davey in laying down to watch the stars. “I’m just glad to be here now. Sure I miss what little I had back on earth but its like what you said before. Out here you’re free and everything is new. Besides, what are the chances I would have met you back there eh? Pretty slim considering you worked in Brooklyn. Brooklyn and Manhattan newsies didn’t seem to ever get along.”   
  
“Well clearly not all newsies are like that.”  Davey chuckled softly. “We obviously proved to them that Brooklyn and Manhattan newsies _can and do_ get along.” He closed his eyes and slowly dozed off under the moonlit sky, next to what was possibly now one of his closest friends. All the emotion from their previous conversation catching up to him and causing him to feel quite exhausted.   
  
Crutchie silently watched him for a few moments, smiling slightly before looking back up at the stars. “Yes…” he murmured, “We did…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a small little bonus thing I guess? Nothing much.  
> Davey? Running into the Delancey's by accident? More likely than you think.  
> Les? Stealing from the Delancey's because he didn't like them? more likely than you think.  
> Crutchie? Not needing all this trouble but getting it anyway and still loving every second of his life? Very Likely.
> 
> I need to take a break from these two and work on the other characters.  
> Such as Jack and Race and how they came about their ranch before Race started a ranch with Spot. So stay tuned.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are much obliged.

**Author's Note:**

> "Davey's not that smart when hes hurt - The Fic"
> 
> I looked this over four times so if theres any mistakes thats on me for not picking them up soon enough.  
> But also I'm really into this au now and theres no turning back.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always enjoyed.  
> Have a nice day!


End file.
